The Alliance has been fight a losing battle against the Syndicate Worlds for over a century. Now, Captain John "Black Jack" Geary, who returned to the fleet after a hundred-year suspended animation, must keep the Alliance one step ahead of its merciless foe.

Your Likes make Audible better!

Publisher's Summary

The Alliance has been fighting a losing battle against the Syndicate Worlds for over a century. Now, Captain John "Black Jack" Geary, who returned to the fleet after a hundred-year suspended animation, must keep the Alliance one step ahead of its merciless foe.

After a series of deadly engagements, the Alliance fleet is severely damaged and its arsenal is running low. Forced to halt in the Baldur Star System to raid the Syndic mines for raw materials, Geary is anxious to get moving again. But what should the fleet's next move be? The Syndics are starting to catch on to Geary's tactics, and as the Alliance ships jump from system to system, it's getting harder to keep one step ahead.

What's more, Geary has started to piece fragments of intelligence together into a highly disturbing picture: the Syndics have been keeping the existence of another potential player in the war a secret - and this unknown power may have the means to annihilate the human race.

BONUS AUDIO: Author Jack Campbell explains how his own background in the military shaped the Lost Fleet series.

What the Critics Say

"Jack Campbell has written the most believable space battles I've ever seen anywhere." (David Sherman, co-author of the Starfist series)"The kind of hero Hornblower fans will love!" (William C. Dietz, national best-selling author of When All Seems Lost)

It&#8217;s been a long while since I really got into a series until this one. Great space war action, believable characters and an engaging plot line. There&#8216;s almost no part of this series that I don&#8216;t like. Perhaps knowing that it will go on for several more volumes but this is a double edged sword as I don&#8216;t want it to end and yet I want to see the climax.
Would like to know more about this universe that Hemry has created. How did the Syndic empire come to be, how did the alliance. Where is Earth in all this? Is this an alternate universe or this one, far in the future?
The reader, Christian Rummel is great. He does female voices very well and accents as well. Very believable. At first I thought only Scott Brick could do justice to this series but Rummel grows on you and you realize he is into this story and a very good actor. Cannot wait for the 4th in this series in June. I might have to buy the hardcover.

If you like hard science fiction in the great tradition then this series Worth every penny.

My only issue, and its a major one, is the author repeats things in all 4 books. This doesn't sound that bad at first but he repeats A LOT! He explains how the ship captains use a virtual conference room, the importance of the hypernet key, how Geary was found floating suspended for 100 years, and the list goes on. I like what one reviewer said "any reader who cannot look in the front of the book and see this is book 4 in a series of 5 deserves to be confused... the repeated content just makes the story more tiring and comes off as "filler" so the book meets a specific page count. "
Amen brother!

Christian Rummel did a good job narrating this story. Great space battle scenes and over all a good military Sci Fi. Black Jack and the lost fleet keep getting into impossible situation but do manage to get them selves out of it. A bit of repetition was getting a bit annoying but over all a good fast pace story. This story finished with a cliff hanger so can not wait for the next in the series.

I am very intrigued by this series, and the reader is very good. There are some problems though.

Each book in the series assumes the reader never read any of the preceding books. You often get descriptions of systems you already have had explained to you over, and over again. The sections dealing with his personal life is very interesting, but the continuing theme of hero worship puts a foreshadow on everything in the book. If he starts thinking about how he can't turn into Black Jack, that probably means he's going to stomp the Syndic fleet into a mud hole.

This book also has problems with the commander being too perfect. Its like the commander does everything you expect him to do. For this reason he doesn't have a human side to him, not really anyways. He's always minding his honor, and doing everything exactly the way it should be done. Its just not very realistic, and this is brought out by the irony that the main character keeps telling himself over and over he's not perfect. Even worse, when things do go wrong Black Jack can't be blamed for the failure. He's invincible and unfallable...

Now onto the good. The space battles are nicely done, if you've been loaded with a pretty good 3D graphics card from the womb they come out pretty handsomely. The fleet drama between the characters does wonders to make the plot very interesting and dynamic. You get to see them fail, and then disciplined which is gratifying for the reader. Anything involving Captain Falco is absolutely hilarious. This is only intensified because the reader makes him sound like quagmire from Family guy. I'm just waiting for a giggidy giggidy to be thrown in for good measure where I would lose control and risk a stroke.

Thats about it for night, i'll see the series through for sure. I just wish the author would of thought it out a little bit more. Some minor tweaks could have removed some of the more glaring inconsistencies.

The books (1-3) are quite good and have held my interest. I will be getting book four as soon as I can. However, I sometimes wish Black Jack would just get on with life as he is in the present and get over his past, and reputation.
The narrator is in a class by himself. The tone changes and accent changes between characters leave no doubt as to who has the dialog, and the whole story comes alive through his characterizations - well done!

I think the author is intent on destroying the whole series with his tiresomely overdone, repetitive, repetitive (did I mention repetitive?) device of the Co-President being paranoid about Geary being or becoming the Black Jack of legend. I had hoped that after overdoing it monumentally in the second book he might give it a rest in this third, but no. This is really the worst of anything overdone I've ever run across in any published work.

Excellent series, has just the right amount of action and personal plots. The narrator does an excellent job on par with Scott Brick. It would be nice to see a little more background information on the two warring factions. Recomend for all ages.

STORY (military sci-fi) - Courageous is Book #3 in The Lost Fleet series. Capt. Geary, who escaped death and survived in an escape pod for 100 years, now finds himself caught in a perilous future where he must command an Alliance fleet in multiple deadly battles with the Syndics (another race of humans). This book continues the same threads as the first two books. Some of his crew worships him while others are nearly mutinous. His fleet is badly damaged, low on weapons and fuel, and cannot find a safe path back to the safety of Alliance space. The Syndics pop up everywhere and sometimes seem to know Geary's next move and be a step ahead of him. But how? There seems to be another alien entity "manipulating" things. Who or what are they? How do they get their information? Are they helping the Syndics or trying to send Geary a message? Very intriguing!

Anyway, I love everything about this book. The battles are ship-to-ship, not man-to-man, so there's no blood and guts. I love hearing Geary and his fleet captains discuss tactics and strategies for the next engagement with the Syndics. Even the battles themselves are interesting. The author has a Naval background, so the formations and movements of the fleet are described in detail and easy to visualize -- not to mention interesting and creative. Also, Geary becomes a bit more human in this book. He's still the renowned hero nicknamed Blackjack Geary, but he and Ambassador Rionne are having a romantic affair and their relationship becomes even more complicated.

PERFORMANCE - Christian Rummel does a great job. He does multiple accents and his voice is low and sexy, yet he still manages to do pretty good female voices. I must admit, however, his performance probably would have just received four stars if it weren't for the fact that I love his voice!!!!

OVERALL - This book is pretty "clean." There's no profanity and only minor references to sleeping together, having an affair, etc., with no actual sex scenes. I highly recommend this to adult sci-fi lovers, both male and female. It's mysterious, tense and the characters are very human. You should listen to the series in order, but each book can "stand alone." Due to the fact that the fleet is in the middle of a six-book journey back to Alliance space, the ending of this book is actually Geary preparing to face the Syndics yet again!

a excellent book full of action and emotions. Captain John Geary is Fantastic common man push into being more than he is by the legend that is Blackjack Geary who died 100 years ago. but he is Blackjack.like fighting yourself over and over again and not being able to win. M x

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

MR

STAINES, United Kingdom

2/27/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Annoying"

These Lost Fleet books really, really annoy me.

They annoy me because the protagonist is wearing Mary Sue's favorite earrings.

They annoy me because the author spells everything out very, very very clearly. So clearly it feels like I'm being bashed over the head with clearly. I'd describe the writing as 'military' - point this end toward enemy. Yes, I know.

They annoy me because of the plodding repetition including but not limited to:-IT'S BLACKJACK! The Famous Hero! Break out the bunting!-the physics of the solar system sized battlefield-DON'T BE BLACKJACK! He can do anything he wants! That's a BAD THING(tm)-the consequences of the self sustaining war of attrition in which the Alliance and the Syndics are engaged leads to the consequences of the self sustaining war of attrition leads to the...-Oh ANCESTORS, WE NEED BLACKJACK!-the physics of the solar system sized battlefield-BLACKJACK! It's even a medical term now, y'know.-the going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about honor-YES, BUT WHAT WOULD BJ DO?-those darn auxiliaries getting us in trouble again... but we NEED them dammit.-YOU NEED TO BE BLACKJACK!-and let's not forget the physics of that battlefield...

And they annoy me because: - despite all of that, the actual fleet engagements (especially in this book) are tense enough to have me on the edge of my seat. And to be fair these rely entirely on a firm grasp of (yes, yes, you may have a point) the physics of the solar system sized battlefield.- the honorable sacrifices are kept simple enough to have an impact- the books are short enough that the repetition doesn't kill you- intriguing hints of SPOILER :-p.

Yes, I'll be going on with sequel

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Report Inappropriate Content

If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Your report has been received. It will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Can't wait to hear more from this listener?

You can now follow your favorite reviewers on Audible.

When you follow another listener, we'll highlight the books they review, and even email* you a copy of any new reviews they write. You can un-follow a listener at any time to stop receiving their updates.

* If you already opted out of emails from Audible you will still get review emails by the listeners you follow.